We have refined our gear over the biking years, and seem to have curated a bit of an eclectic collection with the barest minimum required for functionality and a bit of comfort! We discovered biking has a lot in common with sailing, mountaineering and hiking so we have taken inspiration there as weight and volume are paramount in our choices. Due to the two of us on the one bike, we have to be very aware of the implications of everything we pack.
~ Please note, when we mention brands here, they are just the products that work for us – usually after a bit of trial and error, so just giving a shout out to the amazing and cool gadgets and gear we have managed to find!
HOME / SHELTER
First Ascent Lunar 2 Person Hiking Tent
Our pack up & go “home away from home” has been climate tested by us in a couple of benchmark Southern African situations!
It has protected us from: a typical torrential Zambezi valley thunderstorm in Zambia, howling winds on the exposed edge of the Makgadigkadi Pans, freezing conditions on our unplanned Garden Route winter ride of 2018.
No raindrop dares penetrate, and it stands astoundingly sturdy against tempests! It even insulates pretty well against the cold, but the most dramatic feature for us so far is its wind and rain resistance.
The tent only weighs 2.5kg, and it’s just large enough for the two of us and quite a lot of gear to be stored overnight.
Basically as long as the Biker Boy can fit comfortably inside it, then myself and the stuff just arrange ourselves accordingly!
Extras that we added:
Ground sheet – 80% black shade cloth. keeps sand, thorns & mud out of our bedroom! Doubles as a cover for the tent on the back of the bike, while travelling.
Spare tent pole sections – this is an essential addition, as we have learned that if we break a tent pole we can end up literally homeless!
THE LOUNGE / DINING ROOM
Our nomadic outdoor living space is anywhere we choose to create it!! Love this sense of freedom…
The groundsheet that is used to wrap the tent in transit, unfolds into a perfect carpet.
If any other furniture is needed, such as a coffee table, we can just pull over a pannier box or other piece of luggage.
For our lounge furniture, we spoiled ourselves with the beautifully engineered Helinox chairs.
Helinox Camping Chairs
These chairs are incredibly lightweight and super comfortable. They can take the weight of at least a 100kg human and pack into tiny compact bags (seen here next to our shoes for scale)
Luci Inflatable Solar Lights
To illuminate our mobile dwelling we have the inflatable Luci Lights – a cool milestone birthday present for the Biker Boy, brought out all the way from the States by cousin Brian! The are perfect to hang up in trees!
Our Lucis are really ultra lightweight, and inflate just like kiddies’ swimming arm bands. There are a couple of brightness settings, and they deflate after use into the tiniest discs, for packing away into any corner!
The lights charge in the sun, and last for about 6 hours.
THE MOBILE LINEN CUPBOARD
2 Drybags
Into the drybags goes an assortment of amazing compact small packing items that make for a very comfortable home!
Mattresses, sleeping bags, tropical quilt and pillows go in there (as well as the camping chairs and even our rain gear).
For me, a Cape Union Mart shape changing beanbaggy type pillow, whic is by day, a backrest on the topbox, and by night, a pillow! My one luxury I have to have…
Amazingly the giant biker boy copes with this cute little nordic camping pillow – thanks Murray!!
Therm-a-Rest Mattresses and Deuter Sleeping Bags
We imported our two Therm-a-Rests into Botswana from the UK, way back in 1996, involving great logistical challenges and cost back then. The pair are still going strong!
They are ridiculously comfortable, and of course lightweight. Despite having lost their self-inflating properties, (we can forgive them that after 25 years!) they are still really easy to inflate!
After initially lugging around enormous floaty sleeping bags, we had to get with the times! These are only a couple of hundred grams each, although slight overkill for our tropical weather, rated at 5 degrees Celsius.
However – total life savers in freezing conditions when nomadding around in other climates! In our normal northern Botswana conditions, the tropical quilt does the trick plus one sleeping bag for backup.
THE KITCHEN
OPTIMUS 99 Vintage kerosene stove
We started out with little gas stoves and cylinders that took up space and weight on the bike. No surprise that we had inherited the vintage 70’s stove from gadget guy Murray
The ever curious and experimental Biker boy discovered this gadget also runs on petrol (gasoline).. so there’s a constant fuel source available at all times in the bike’s fuel tank, no need to carry fuel.
A siphon pipe and little dropper complete the kit. With a little care and surgeon-like precision, we can boil water, cook pasta, stirfry, saute, and make a Sunday morning breakfast fry-up!
Stainless Steel Pot x 1
Amazingly for biking we need to pack only one pot and its lifting handle for the following purposes
1. to contain the Optimus stove
2. pot to cook pasta or rice in
3. the lid works as a frying pan
Vintage Optimus has its own miniature container, dual purpose lid/cover, and min pot – so between the two, we are sorted!
AeroPress Coffee Maker, and Fold-up Wash Basin (aka The Kitchen Sink)!
This lightweight and essential gadget transferred over from the world of sailing, a gift from our friend Bernard who used it on his yacht! In just one coffee making session, 2 cups of filter coffee are pressed through a tiny circle of fine filter paper to brew the prefect cup of coffee.
Another inherited item that we used in remote area camping in the wilds of Botswana.